ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Toric manifold

A toric manifold is like a special kind of shape that you can make by stacking blocks in a certain way. Imagine you have a bunch of colorful wooden blocks with different shapes on them - squares, triangles, circles, and more. Now, imagine you want to stack them all up in a special way so that they make a certain shape.

Well, a toric manifold is like a special shape that you can make by stacking blocks in a way that makes a symmetrical and uniform shape. Just like when you stack blocks, you need to place each block in a precise location so that the shape stays uniform and symmetrical, and the same is true for toric manifolds.

But what makes toric manifolds special is that they have a special kind of symmetry called toric symmetry, which means that if you look at the shape from different angles, it looks the same. This is like if you had a toy that looked the same no matter which way you looked at it.

Toric manifolds are often studied by mathematicians, and they have lots of interesting properties that can be explored. By understanding toric manifolds, we can learn more about shapes and symmetry, and how they can be used to understand the world around us.